1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a multilayer thin film metallic structure to be formed on a substrate for subsequent joining of connector pins. More particularly, a 4-layer structure including a relatively thick stress reducing cushion layer and titanium barrier layer is disclosed.
2. Background Information
The multilayer ceramic technology for integral mounting of semiconductor chips is well-known in the art. In semiconductor chip packaging, it is known to provide a ceramic substrate with termination pads on both the top and bottom surfaces of the substrate for attaching semiconductor chips, engineering change (EC) wires, input/output (I/O) connector pins, capacitors, etc. The assembled chip packages are then connected to the next level of packaging by means of the attached I/O pins on the bottom surface of the substrate.
The termination pads can be fabricated in a conventional manner by metal paste screening which upon sintering will become sintered dense metal pads suitable for the various interconnection purposes. Although this method of making termination pads has received wide acceptance in the alumina ceramic substrate technology, it nevertheless suffers from the disadvantage of requiring extreme care and attention when more fragile substrate materials such as glass ceramic are used.
Glass ceramics are known to have low dielectric constants and thermal coefficients of expansion (TCE) similar to silicon. For these reasons, it is desirable to use glass ceramics as a substitute for alumina ceramics in semiconductor chip packaging. Despite the desirability of employing glass ceramic in packaging technology, there is the problem of glass cracking due to the inherent fragile nature of the glass ceramic material. The thermal stresses experienced in the glass are principally due to the TCE mismatch between the I/O pad/pin joint and the glass ceramic substrate. It is further understood that the tensile stresses created along the radial direction in the immediate neighborhood of the I/O pad perimeters are critically dependent upon the following key factors: the size, thickness and geometry of the I/O pads; the material properties of the I/O pads; the pin joint morphology; and the distribution of braze alloy on the I/O pads.
It is therefore desirable to have a multilayer thin film structure which can be tailored to minimize the internal stresses generated by the pin braze operation within the ceramic, yet also provide for adequate adhesion to the ceramic substrate.